I made it!! I was planning on arriving in the US Virgin islands, but instead here I am in Antigua.

It’s a long story, but pretty much the captain and I didn’t get a lone the greatest. I could tell from the outset that he was an odd guy. His social skills were off and he was terrible at communicating and leading in a way a captain of a ship should. That’s not the biggest deal to me. You can be a weirdo as long as you know how to sail a boat. And you know what? He could sail. So I made it safely across! Thanks be to God for that and that’s the real accomplishment in the first place.

However, I had a flight booked from the US Virgin islands and he decided to go Antigua instead, simply because he wanted to and didn’t feel like sailing to the US Virgin islands anymore. Before I booked the flight I consulted with him about different places that had cheap flights home, like Grenada, Barbados, and the US Virgin islands. He said any of them were fine. He didn’t seem super confident about it though and I tried to draw some commentary on it out of him, but nothing.. So now I have a flight booked that is essentially useless. Here in Antigua I looked for flights from this island to the US Virgin islands, but due to hurricane Irma a lot of the inter Carribean airlines are still out of commission. There were some $600 or so flights to get me to my flight on time, but they had crazy layovers in Newark or something like that. I’d be better off just buying a new flight home. I sent an email to American Airlines, with whom I have my original flight home, so we’ll see what they can do for me.

The journey itself started with me arriving in the Canary islands off the coast of Africa. It was a 45 minute flight from Western Sahara, which was necessary since I couldn’t find a boat to take me there from Africa directly. There I was lucky enough to get picked up by the captain who I made contact with throgh an online service called FindaCrew.net. Seemed like a good start and he was pretty nice at first, though I could tell he was already a little off. But hey as long as he can sail a boat! I definitely learned on this leg of my travels that I can be a little to naive sometimes. We got to his boat and spent the next couple of days doing repairs and getting things ready. Then, with two girls he had met before, we sailed from Gran Canaria (the main island) to La Gomera. In La Gomera we stocked up on produce and did the last preparation. Then we set off!!

The first three days I was sea sick. That wasn’t much fun. Also I quickly learned that he was a stickler about how much food I ate. He said he had more food on board when we bought the produce, but there wasn’t as much as I anticipated. Also back on land one of the earlier days of our relationship he told me he was “disappointed in me” when I ate the leftover food from the day before. He said, “I eat too” all upset. In honesty, that portion which was apparently egregious to him wasn’t even enough to fill me up. People who know me know I like to eat a lot, but I had toned it down on the road especially since food in Paris was mind bogglingly expensive.

Anyways, his typical meal was some rice and some cooked vegetables in small small portions. I tried to do my own cooking once during the first days of the trip and I cooked two eggs. He made some comment about it and though it was very indirect I knew in his poor communication skills that meant he didn’t approve. So from then on I left the cooking to him, which is how I felt he preferred it. I of course did the dishes always. Downside to him cooking was that there was only one or if I was lucky two meals a day. I had my oatmeal in the morning and then if I was lucky maybe two bowls of rice and vegetables the rest of the day. Though, 50% of the time it was only one bowl. It wasn’t until day 10 on the sea that I started finding the canned tuna to add to my meals out of necessity. In the beginning I couldn’t tell the difference between sea sickness and hunger, but as the sea sickness subsided I realized I was spending most of the day and going to bed hungry.

Eventually I adapted to the lack of food like I did to the sea sickness, but that didn’t stop fantasies. I fantasized about any fast food restaurant, about ice cream, and this very specific fantasy of a peanut butter sandwich made with oatmeal cream pies as the bread. I haven’t had peanut butter since I left the US, so that’s one of the things at the top of my list.

More about being at sea! After a week or so I started to get really sick of the smell of nothing but salt water. I would take deep breaths and be left uncontent. I missed the smell of leaves or of any vegetation mixed in with the fresh air. I even started smelling this piece of wood on the boat just to smell something different.

Another observation was that on every single day of the 19 journey I saw a bird. Even in the middle of the ocean, thousands of miles from land. We saw a total of 5 ships during the journey. During one 12 hour period we saw 3 vessels, which led to the conclusion that we were crossing a shipping route between Brazil and Europe. We mostly saw these ships at a distance, never closer than 5 miles or so. Closer to the Carribean we saw a cruise ship looking like the Las Vegas of the ocean. It always felt odd to see another ship. We would go days without seeing anything but water, but then there’s another ship that has a very relatable experience to the one I’m having – spending days at sea with similar trials and tribulations.

Sailing is extremely boring. There is an autopilot that does the steering and an automatic alarm that goes off if we get close to other ships. So you literally don’t have to do anything. Instead I spent time reading, listening to podcasts that I wisely downloaded before leaving, and just staring out and watching the waves hit the side of the boat. It left way to much time for thinking. At points it was extremely depressing. I thought alot how this is what real extreme cases of depression must feel like. Being trapped somewhere where with no end in sight. Surrounded by water the only way off the boat is to jump in the water, which is desth because you’ll never be found. Not to worry, I wasn’t that depressed, but I did start to miss my family and friends a lot more. The anticipation of getting home made it pretty tough to watch those waves hit the side of the boat day after day. Thinking of how my family and friends especially think I’m amazing or stronger than most for traveling and being so independent and adventurous made me act extra strong so I wouldn’t let them down. It’s nice to have forms of encouragement like that along the way.

I had some Bible study podcasts downloaded and it one we fittingly went over the flood. Needless to say, I had a new perspective. Also seeing rainbows after that instilled a renewed appreciation of God’s promise to us.

Sailing west we got to sail right towards the sunsets. Lots more clouds than I expected, but there were some great sunsets. Sunsets were always a good thing to speed up time and end a day. At nights I did a lot of reading. I think I read about five books, even a 1000+ page book about the federal reserve.

We had one suprise squid hop onto the boat. I even saw him land next to me as I was sitting in the cockpit at the time. Other times you’d come outside to see flying fish that unfortunately jumped into the cockpit. If they were lucky they got saved before they baked in the sun. Also leaving the Canary islands we had several instances of dolphins swimming along with us. For the first two nights around sunset the would entertain us by jumping and zig zagging around the boat. As we got further out we didn’t see the dolphins again until Antigua.

I’ll wrap up my sailing journey with some general info. The boat was probably approximately 3000 miles the route we took. It was a 30ft (10m German boat) catamaran with two cabins. My side of the boat had my bed, a workshop with all the navigation equipment and the bathroom. The other side had the captains bed and a kitchen and table for eating. No fridge. The cabins were spacious, but I still was unable to stand straight up in them. At first, all the bending over caused me to tweak my back, but stretching helped fix that problem.

So that was the journey. God blessed me once again and kept me safe through another naive wild idea! Above picture of me on the toliet in my cabin. Hopefully I’ll be home soon! I can’t wait to endulge in some gluttonous American food!

There are some more pictures from Lake Baikal. As you can see my Russian friends are excellent photographers. I’m sure there are still yet more photos coming. Nicolai made a trip video, but I will have to figure out how to get it off the Russian equivilant of Facebook.

In Moscow I stayed with Natasha and Ivan at there house. Being recently married they furniture is a little lacking so I got a sleeping bag on the floor which was perfect for me. We took the metro and trains a lot to get around. The metro stations where usually quite beautiful. We went to the red square. I saw where Lenin’s body is and I got to see St. Basil’s! I guess Ivan the Terrible had the architects eyes removed after he built so he would never build anything as beautiful again. After the red square we went and visited Nicolai at his house and he had a giant monitor lizard in room. It’s apparently 4 meters long.. Nicolai is super interesting. He was at the best University in Russia, but dropped out and started the countries largest reptile supply company and he just recently co-founded a biotech accelerator. For the biotech accelerator he will be speaking in San Francisco this summer at a conference. I helped revise his English bio for the conference website.

Next day I went to the WW2 museum. It is always fun to see the perspective of other countries in historical events. A lot of the museum was in Russian, but from what I could get they felt they had a pretty big role in the victory. I’m not saying they didn’t, but they made Britain and the US seem like merely cheerleaders at times. The Soviet, by far, had most casualties and were the ones responsible for liberating most of the Holocaust camps. What they withstood defending the siege on Stalingrad was a real example of fighting spirit as well. On the other hand, it was actually really interesting to see some acknowledgement of the downfalls of the Soviet government and how they lead to some hardships in the war.

Then, the next day I took the bus to Kiev, Ukraine. That’s where I am at now. Waiting to head towards Budapest. I’ll have a couple connecting trains and tickets can’t be purchased in advanced so it’s all one step in front of the other! I kind of prefer that to planning ahead anyways.

The inside of this train station is pretty beautiful! I’m guessing built during the Soviet era. I also made it out to a cathedral just to see some of the city.

Now, I’m going to hurry to a market to buy some snacks for my journey before heading out! Until next time!

Bonus!!

I totally forgot about my experience at the border when I originally posted so here’s a little story on getting out of Russia and into Ukraine. The story comes straight from my personal journal.

Journal Excerpt:

The Russian border exit was rough. At first my backpack got stuck in the scanner and the guy there was yelling at me in Russian which I obviously didn’t understand. Then at the passport control I handed my passport to the lady and she didn’t even look at me before before saying a couple Russian phrases. Not understanding, she sent me back to the other side to wait. After waiting a couple of people I was called back and a young Ukrainian kid, about my age, translated. She was pretty mean right from the start. She asked where I got my visa and I told the translator Thailand. She looked at it again and the translator said, “She doesn’t believe you that you got it in Thailand.” Well great, I thought. I told the translator, “I don’t know what to tell her. I got it in Bangkok…” I laughed because she was being a little ridiculous. Then she says something in a harsh tone in Russian which provokes my translator to say, “She asked why you’re smiling.” Now I am getting a little irritated as she seems to be trying to belittle me.

(Look, you’re being totally rude and I am smiling because I think it’s ridiculous that you are going to keep me at the border after I just spent my tourist dollars in your country.)

I’m obviously a backpacker. Check my passport. Do a thorough search of my backpack… Then she continues the interrogation asking what I did in St. Petersburg. I tell the translator I never went to St. Petersburg. She’s all wound up and says that’s what it says on my visa information. I tell her that I didn’t go there so I don’t know why it says that. She doesn’t like the answer… I explained about taking the train from Irktusk to Moscow. She spends a while going back and forth through the passport pages and typing on her computer. I finally get passport back. Upon inspection the St. Petersburg confusion came from my inviting travel “sponsor” which is required to get a visa in the first place. The travel company is based in St. Petersburg. Don’t know how she didn’t understand that..

Funniest thing of the whole ordeal is that I was supposed to “register” my visa as soon as I could within getting into the country with penalties incurring after 7 days. I stayed 10 and never registered… You are supposed to register at the hotel or places where you are staying, but every place I stayed was unable to register it. I even rode a bus an hour the wrong way only to miss the immigration building hours in an attempt to register my visa. However, my only true offense was the one not brought up. Russian bureaucracy…

After two not so fun Chinese commuter trains I made it to the border town. In the border town I got out off the train to a notable weather change. It’s starting to get pretty chilly as I move north! In the border town I started to notice some changes. It wasn’t like the typical Chinese towns I had seen. It seemed more Russian… There was Russian writing under the Chinese on the sign as well.

As I walked through the town I finally made it to the bus station and got my phone charged and used the suprising fast wifi there. After a couple hour wait my border bus was ready to depart. I got on the bus with some Chinese and likely Mongolian people and we headed for the border. We got to the Chinese border and got out of the bus to proceed with the exit paperwork. A Chinese soldier seemed really curious to see a foreignor at the land border crossing since they probably don’t get many. He asked to see my passport and spent time turning through each page of my passport. Often when I see officials do this they seem very procedural, but he had a glimmer of genuine intrigue and interest in the places I have been. He smiled at me and said, “American!” as he handed me back my passport.

Back onto the bus and then a stop at the Mongolian entry point. More paperwork and more waiting. Then onto the bus one last time and then we we’re shuttled to the center of the Mongolian border town. In all it took probably 2 hours to get through.

Immediately, I started to notice some things about this Mongolian border town. It wasn’t at all like I expected. It seemed more Russian then Asian, and really it wasn’t much of a town. Historically, the Mongols are a nomadic people. Town and city building isn’t really their thing and it shows. Most of the buildings here are left over from the Soviet occupation it seems. Mongolia was a Soviet satalite state from 1924-1990. During that time Russia pumped in money and built hospitals, schools, theaters, and a lot of public services that were previously foreign to the Mongolian people.

Even today 30% of the countries population maintains a nomadic lifestyle. That is one of the reasons Mongolia is unlike any country I have ever visited. The picture above is a “ger.” Gers are homes made easily transportable for when the nomadic people move to a different pastures. It’s said there are 10 sheep for every person in Mongolia. This nomadic culture and reliance on horsemanship is apparent in most respects when observing the country.

There is a huge respect for the great Genghis Kahn and his likeness appear everywhere from posters to cigarette and vodka brands.

I said the border town initially made me think of Russia and Soviet times, and that isn’t helped by the dilapidated look of the public park. Then picture makes it look like a depraved town during the dust bowl, but these are the realities when towns flirt close with the Gobi desert. The majority of the country’s land isn’t arable, but is a grassy steppe. This is one of the larger reasons why the nomadic lifestyle still prevails.

The train station in this border town looked like it was built by the Russians probably in the 50s and then closed when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. However, in fact, it was still open. It was ornate, almost like a church. You could tell it it’s hay day it would have seemed extravagant, right on par with the the image of Trans Siberian Railroad when it first opened. By looking at the building, however, one would ha guessed it hadn’t been used in years. The majority of the doors were barred shut and you actually had to go to another building, a more modern one, to buy tickets. Stepping into the old station revealed a waiting room and a luggage room and not much else. Walking into the waiting room was like stepping into a time capsule. There was a cigar lounge and and a bar. It was the type of bar you could imagine Western travelers enjoying a scotch at during one of there stops along their Trans Siberian journey.

The train itself was like something straight out of the Polar Express or Harry Potter. While, the steam locomotive wasn’t quite on par, the cabins and the carriages carried an aura of excitement for the coming journey. I couldn’t help but grinding the whole time.

A 6pm departure got us out of town and into the vastness of the Gobi right in time for sunset. Out of the East window you could see the vast stretches of uninhabited plains. Out of the West window you got a spectacular view of the sun setting over the desert. I couldn’t have asked for a better send off on my first official leg of the Trans Siberian Railroad. Though Beijing is generally considered the start (or end) of the railroad, I could hardly consider that a proper start since this train was my first experience with a sleeper car.

I slept like a log through the night, and only awoke once when I gained two roommates at a stop along the way. I barely noticed and continued sleeping. In my 8 days in China I had only slept in a proper bed 3 times. The rest was either on a train or a bus. So to me this 2nd class sleeper car feels like luxury. I awoke in the morning to rolling hills and the desert blanketed in snow. From time to time we would pass a little settlement with a couple buildings and numerous gers.

At around 9am we pulled into the station. Yet another climate shock. We are getting colder and colder as I go! The picture above shows the trusty stead that carried us through the night. Now I am in Ulan Bator! This is the cpaital.of Mongolia and by far it’s biggest city. In fact this city makes up 45% of the countries population.

I first got to a hostel and then connected to WiFi to organize my next moves. I still needed to go back to the train station in the afternoon to book my train ticket taking me to Irktusk, Russia the next day. I stepped in and made plans to go see the famous monastery in the city. Inside there was this massive shrine of some person or god. I tried to discretely snap a picture since I was the only tourist and everyone else there was performing rituals and worshipping. I failed to get the whole thing, but it was massive and quite impressive.

The city has some mountains out to the South and to the East there is a national park and the world’s largest equestrian statue built in Genghis Kahn’s honor. Due to my time restraints and the steep price to take a tour there I unfortunately won’t get to see Genghis in his future glory. However, that just shows the true legend status he maintains in this country. I read about how Mongols are the best horseman in the world and learned that they start so young that they actually become deformed and have a hunched over back from riding so often at such a young age. By the monastery was the first time I observed this. I saw several old men in the traditional winter coats and boots hunched over to an average height of around 5′. It was crazy to see that in person. I reckon the older generation grew up in those traditions and some of the last who will experience that deformity.

My first day in Ulan Bator was literally freezing… During the day it was 0° Fahrenheit not including the wind chill! It’s a little bit of a shock coming from the 90°s of Thailand so recently. Luckily, my hostel owner was going to the black market and invited me to go along. I’m not sure why it’s called the black market, because it’s essentially just the popular local market. You probably have to know someone to get the black market items. But my purpose was warm close. For a grand total of $26 I came away with a sheep wool sweater, camel wool socks and a hat, and yak wool gloves. Mongolia is one of the largest producers of wools products and if I was heading home I would have loaded up on the cheapest cashmere clothing I have ever seen. If you are into wool, this place would be heaven for you.

Day 2:

I started the day by leaving my hostel at 9am. It was -12°! I sure am glad I have all this wool gear now otherwise I’d be in trouble. I started out towards the National Museum of Mongolian History with a pit stop at the city square. The city square, once again, reinforced the cultural significance of Genghis Kahn and the nomadic lifestyle. Below you can see a sculptures of (probably) significant men on horse back and a sculpture of Genghis Kahn ruling his empire.

At the museum I got a real glimpse of the rich history of Mongolia. The one thing traveling that has struck me is how much history is in some of these civilizations compared to the United States. Mongolia has one of the richest histories of any. There were the early people who were hunter and gatherers. However, then I found it interesting to see that some early cultures of Mongols developed cities and towns. That is especially interesting considering even today 30% of the country still lives as nomads with out permanent cities or town.

I got a better understanding of gers and how the nomadic people thrived in them. Then looking at the political history it was awesome to follow the rise of Genghis Kahn forming the largest empire in the history of the world. The Mongols essentially controlled all of Asia and as far as Italy in Europe with Poland and Hungary in it’s reigns. Genghis’s grandchildren even started a new dynasty in China.

Somewhere in there the Huns come out of the mongols and they have a rich history as well. More recently Mongolia was the second ever communist country and then recently in the 90s transitioned to a free market economy. So much history!

The owner of my hostel talked about how Mongolia was a special country and used the metaphor of the world being a body. “If the world were a body,” he said. “Mongolia would be the brain.” Not entirely sure what he meant by that, but he talked about how the land is so pure from the way people have used it for centuries. He talked about the pureness and how spirits rest everywhere in the country unlike most other places. From what I gathered that was supposed to be a good thing. Nonetheless, though I didn’t spend a much time here as I would have liked, Mongolia is one of my favorite and definitely one of the most interesting countries I have visited.

To put it simply, Mongolia is special. I look forward to returning for some more adventures some day! However, the journey home leads through Russia. Now, to start the train journey through Siberia.